Coffee break exercise: Cooling down

After a heated week, (try to) chill out with this creative writing exercise

For five minutes, scribble furiously with pen on paper about everything that's got you hot and bothered this week - weather, politics, whatever it might be. No nice sentences or inner editor – this is all about venting.

Then take a deep breath and turn over to a new page. For the next ten minutes, start with the word COOL and begin to create a word map of all the ideas and phrases you associate with the idea of cooling down.

At the end of the ten minutes, have any of the words and phrases sparked an idea for the beginnings of a new piece of prose or poetry?

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